2 Fired For Looking At Obama Passport File

Condoleezza Rice Apologizes As State Department Investigates Why Contract Employees Snooped In Obama's File

(CBS/AP)  Two contract employees for the State Department have been fired and a third disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's passport file, and the department is investigating whether political or other motives were involved, senior officials said Thursday.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said that for now it appears that nothing other than "imprudent curiosity" was involved in three separate breaches of the Illinois senator's personal information. It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age and place of birth that is required when a person fills out a passport application.

McCormack said Friday that the State inspector general's office is looking into the matter, but Justice Department officials have been notified in case they need to get involved.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she spoke with Obama and apologized.

"I told him that I was sorry, and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed," Rice told reporters.

"None of us wants to have a circumstance where any American's passport files are looked at in an unauthorized way," she said.

Rice, who spoke with Obama by phone, said she was particularly disappointed that senior officials at the State Department were not immediately notified.

"It was not to my knowledge, and we also want to take every step to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again," she said.

The breaches occurred on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14, and were detected by internal State Department computer checks, McCormack said. The department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, said certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a computer tag that tips off supervisors when someone tries to view the records without a proper reason.

The State Department would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined, or the names of the two companies they worked for. The department's inspector general is investigating.

Kennedy said that the three employees in question worked for two different contractors, reports CBS News producer Charlie Wolfson. Kennedy added that contract employees that work in the passports section of the State department number in the thousands.

"We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, but we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said.

The firings and unspecified discipline of the third employee already had occurred when senior State Department officials learned of the breaches. Kennedy called that a failing.

"I will fully acknowledge this information should have been passed up the line," Kennedy told reporters in a conference call Thursday night. "It was dealt with at the office level."

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign, called for a complete investigation.

"This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years. Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes," Burton said.

"This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach," he said.

"We don't know what they were looking for, who they are or what their motivation was but it brings up memories of the search for dirt on Bill Clinton that led to a government investigation," CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs said in Horserace. "We don’t know if they are sympathetic to the Republican Party or to Hillary Clinton or whether they were just mischievous or curious. But it's not comforting for the hopes this campaign was supposed to embody."

The department informed Obama's Senate office of the breach on Thursday. Kennedy said that at the office's request, he will provide a personal briefing for the senator's staff on Friday. No one from the State Department spoke to Obama personally on Thursday, the officials said.

Obama was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia for several years as a child before returning to the states. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has traveled to the Middle East, the former Soviet states with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Africa, where in 2006 he and his wife, Michelle, publicly took HIV tests in Kenya to encourage people there to do the same.

Obama's father was born in Kenya, and the senator still has relatives there.

The disclosure of inappropriate passport inquiries recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. The State Department's inspector general said the official had helped arrange the search in an attempt to find politically damaging information about Clinton, who had been rumored to have considered renouncing his citizenship to avoid the Vietnam war draft.

The State Department said the official, Steven Berry, had shown "serious lapses in judgment."

Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady who is challenging Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, said of the breach: "It's outrageous and the Bush administration has to get to the bottom of it."

In the current case, Kennedy and McCormack said it was too soon to say whether a crime was committed. The searches may violate the federal Privacy Act, and Kennedy said he is consulting State Department lawyers.

The State Department inspector general's power is limited, because two of the employees are no longer working for the department. McCormack said it was premature to consider whether the FBI or Justice Department should be involved.

McCormack said Rice was informed of the breaches on Thursday.

The State Department conducts background checks of its contract employees who perform passport applications work, but does not ask about political affiliations, Kennedy said.

[obama8years]

Libs have really been attacking Mccain, they think all he can do is keep us in IRAQ.
Money Magazine Says his Healthcare Plan is the best, the do mention some flaws so it is fair and balanced. It mentions the other candidates health care as well.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/10/news/economy/tully_healthcare.fortune/

[beebopareebo]

Camp Obama shows why it is amateur hour once again:

After throwing a world class hissy fit about his passport to distract the media from his OTHER and most recent ridiculous word class fumble -- a/k/a "typical white" person -- it now comes to light that the people involved WORK FOR A COMPANY OWNED BY A CAMP OBAMA INSIDER ... You really can''t make this stuff up ... SNL has just too much to work with tonight. I won''t miss it!

[obama8years]

James David Manning, Now this is a Black Man who could run for President.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HpBHnAdlA

[vmcneal2]

McCain is aligned with Rev John Hagee and
Rev Rod Parsley. These two not only "preach" hate they also "advocate" killing ALL(1.7 billion) Muslims. This is just some of the hate these two spew out. McCain has not denounced these people, in fact he said he was "proud and honored" to have Hagee''s and Parsley''s endorsements.

[darnedsocks]

THE PEOPLE GETTING FIRED SHOULD BE THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY UNIT WHO ALLOWED THESE CONSULTANTS TO HAVE THIS LEVEL OF ACCESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[chyke1]

Fox News'' very own anchors are speaking out %u2014 and walking off %u2014 over what they perceive to be "Obama-bashing" on their network.

This morning on "Fox and Friends," Brian Kilmeade walked off the set after a dispute with his co-hosts Gretchen Carlson (she who celebrates deadly floods) and Steve Doocy over Obama''s comment that his grandmother is a "typical white person." Kilmeade argued that the remark needed to be taken in context and eventually got so fed up with his co-hosts that he walked off set.

Later, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace came on the show and railed against "Fox and Friends" for what he called "Obama-bashing."

Watch both clips below (refresh your page if they don''t load properly):

Brian Kilmeade walks off set over Obama dispute:

Culled from the Huffington Post

Chyke

[subscriber2-2009]

chitown,
The fact that wright did make those statements, the fact that obama has been aligned with him and the church for so long, the fact that the church and wright are associated with farrakhan and the black panthers. This is enough to convince anyone that this is a church that has set values to hate white people and is unamerican. That is what is going to cost obama the nomination and the election.

Posted by ranger1948 at 05:26 AM : Mar 21, 2008
__________

Nicely worded ranger1948.

Were you in WWII Rangers?

[infidel_us]

pro-human being policies, Posted by hungry1968 at 12:49 PM : Mar 21, 2008

That would be post birth human beings. I see where he received Planned Parenthood''s TOP rating. That''s really special.

[infidel_us]

Of course the Ubama camp''s FIRST knee jerk response is to claim VICTIM! This is a yawner for sure. Like there''s anything in a passport to cry over.

Talk to Clinton about her 900+ FBI files on republicans! I don''t recall the press getting out of joint about that.

Also, if Ubama thinks this will take the heat off his so called ''church'', he''s WRONG!

[starleo146]

Posted by taotxzen at 12:01 PM : Mar 21, 2008
+ report abus

taotxzen thank you for throwing some sanity as usual great post as always I enjoy them

[starleo146]

I never thought about it, but I think you have the perfect ticket there. Obama with his progressive, pro-growth, pro-human being policies, and Richardson with his record of foreign policy experience, and overall political experience.

That would be a very, very tough ticket to beat!! I like it!!

Posted by hungry1968 at 12:49 PM : Mar 21, 2008
+ report abu

By Golly I think You Are Right a tough ticket indeed.

[starleo146]

Yep I know him well. We talk on Yahoo a lot. He lives in Illinois. We were in Nam at the same time... I was in MAG-13 and he was in the north. He''''s very upset about all the lies told by Bush. You see he lost 13 of his outfit in Nam and takes killing our kids very serious. He has more medal on his chest that Fort Knox too. LOL

Posted by skyk at 12:04 PM : Mar 21, 2008
+ report abus

Youknow skyk how can anyone even ask you a question like this. Unbelievable, Unless you have been there, done that felt the pain just shut your big yap up mr.jersupporter you are the lowest of the low

[vmcneal2]

Subscriber2...Don''t know how old you are,but I was around for the cival rights movement..Dr King was called every filthy name you can think of including Uppidy "N" word, Trouble Maker, Communist, Martin Luther Koon etc etc etc. In the Sixties he was cosidered a threat to the United States. And the FBI had a file on him the size of the Manhatten phone book.

[subscriber2-2009]

At least Bill Clinton was circumcized.


Posted by octo99 at 01:04 AM : Mar 21, 2008

______________

From what source is this information from?

[flreason]

"It''''s easy to believe that this is just the tip of the ice-berg and that the GOP mafia is behind it; our suspicions should grow if the State Dept refuses to identify the contractors involved."
Posted by greybeardvet

In the State Department news conference, their spokesperson refused to name the contractors involved when asked. He also declined to speculate whether that information might be released at a later time. No doubt the current administration will invoke national security as their smoke screen for this one, since they can''t hide behind the executive privilege blanket. This is such a smoking gun, since they know that any failure to provide that information is going to be perceived as a cover-up. Just turn in your info and say hello to government by Halliburton.

[vmcneal2]

People don''t pay any attention to TracyMorgon A few weeks ago this little worm was on pretending to be a hip hop talking black guy. TracyMorgan consider yourself reported.

[subscriber2-2009]

Posted by vmcneal2 at 02:10 PM : Mar 21, 2008

_______________

No harm meant. Amo means black. Black people can clean up harmful black people just as any other person can. There are alot of blacks out there that dont like obama''s affiliation with Wright, Farrahkhan.

What would Dr King think?
How about Dr Rice, even if she is Rep, does she espouse the rantings and anti-American stance wife obama gives out?

osamabmbmb hussein needs to be cleaned up by his own race, and any other person who can help. cleaned up means not harm, means wash out the evil.

on the other hand, there are postings on this comment board of folks talking about hangings and the like. Now that is wanting harm to another. I did not write such things as that.

[starleo146]

In reading some of these hateful racist comments and I say to myself what in the, or who in the world, has got us to this place, a country who is giving to all in need, more than any other, maybe except themselves. We over and over again do not embrace what this country stands for, we only find ways to hurt each other, and tell me, where or what will end it, because it will end, no country will stand on division. Karl Rove look what you have done, George Bush look what you have done, Richard Cheney look what you have done, I hope you are proud of yourself, we will survive it but at what cost to all.

[subscriber2-2009]

subscriber2 said, "Accoding to a Washington Times article posted on June 5, %u201CHe [Obama] added there is evil in the world %u2014 as seen in the September 11 terrorist attacks %u2014 and said he sees it in the detention camp in Guantanamo and in the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.%u201D

Well well, Obama forgot to mention evil of terrorism."
---
The quotation you faithfully typed out seems to contain the reference you say is missing. What does "[Obama] added there is evil in the world %u2014 as seen in the September 11 terrorist attacks..." mean, if not exactly that?

Posted by alphaa10 at 03:29 AM : Mar 21, 2008
_____________

To alphaa10:

It appears from obama words that he implies that current US policy to hold prisioners at Gitmo is wrong. It appears that he placed more importance on the poor treatment of terrorists than what the terrorists did to us, calling the treatment of prisioners evil.
So what would he do if President? let them out?

[vmcneal2]

Subscriber2...What you wrote could get you in alot of trouble. If you are anti- Obama that''s OK, but it sounds like you want to do phyiscal harm to the man You keep talking like that and the Secret Service may pay you a visit.